


The Truest Believer

by laniew1



Series: The Lost Girl [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-20 01:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1491742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laniew1/pseuds/laniew1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal and Henry still end up in Storybrooke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Truest Believer

**Author's Note:**

> Peter is not Gold’s father in any way shape or form. So consider this completely AU now.

**The Truest Believer**

 

 

The first thing Baelfire does is get a name; they’re easy enough once he figures out the world once more.

Neal Cassady, he likes the name, that way it rolls off his tongue and the shapes his lips make when his mouth forms the words over and over again.

“My name is Neal,” he says and he cradles the boy in his arms, Emma and Pan’s son. The boy is small, he doesn’t cry much and he flips through a book in a store, chooses a name at random, hopes that wherever Emma is she’s at peace and happy and doesn’t hate him too much for not being able to trust that Pan wouldn’t hurt the boy when he found her dead.

“My name is Neal and this is my brother Henry.”

 

******************************************************************************

 

Henry grows; Neal bounces them around, never sure where they going and what they’re going to do.

He’s an inquisitive child and when he’s old enough Neal settles them in a little town in Florida and gets him ready to go to school.

He finds a job and they have a crappy apartment and Neal barely thinks about Neverland and Emma or the Enchanted Forest and his papa.

Except for all days ending in ‘y’ and _especially_ the day when August finds him.

 

******************************************************************************

 

He doesn’t know how August finds them, he just knows that the man shows up at their apartment moving stiffly and looking scared.

“I know who you are,” August says, Neal moves more completely in front of the door, hopefully hiding Henry from August’s eyes.

“I don’t know…” Neal starts.

“Baelfire, I know who you are and we don’t have time for this,” August says, Neal makes a noise in his throat.

“My name is August now, but I used to go by Pinocchio,” _that_ noise is Henry’s feet hitting the floor and the door opening wider and then it’s Henry and Neal staring at August in disbelief.

“Pinocchio? Really?” Neal says, his heart is thudding in his chest and he feels like everything that he’s fought for is being shredded like tissue paper.

“I need Emma,” August says, he presses a hand hard against the door like it’s the only thing keeping him upright. “I need to find Emma.”

Neal swallows thickly and presses a hand to Henry’s head.

“Emma’s dead,” he says softly and Henry turns his head into his side hiding his face and most likely his tears.

 

******************************************************************************

 

August convinces them to come to Storybrooke.

That’s not completely true, he convinces _Henry_ to go to Storybrooke and Henry convinces Neal to come with them.

“Mom would want us to do this,” Henry says, he sounds so certain and sincere. Neal would love to tell him that Emma didn’t even think about her parents except to be mad that they’d abandoned her. She certainly hadn’t known that they were Snow White and Prince Charming.

“What do you think they’ll be like?” Henry asks when they’re in the car driving toward Storybrooke, August is in the back seat looking more and more like the wooden boy / man that he is.

“I don’t know,” the only person Neal can really focus on is his papa, and how much he’s really hoping that he’s not in this town.

His luck doesn’t go that way though; he knows that better than most.

 

******************************************************************************

 

August has a book of fairytales; Neal and Henry are able to determine who is who and yes his papa is among them.

Rumpelstiltskin is Mr. Gold here, he runs an antique shop and once Henry figures out who he is to Neal he can’t seem to stay away.

“He’s your dad,” Henry says and there’s a tone in his voice that says that he would love to have the opportunity to meet his dad and thinks there’s something wrong with Neal for not taking advantage of the situation to the max.

Of course Henry’s dad is Pan and his mom is the girl who was supposed to save their world, he’s got pretty good genes and he’ll definitely be able to take care of himself.

Neal’s dad is the Dark One.

 

******************************************************************************

 

He’s not sure how Henry breaks the curse, but he does, of course then his papa manages to unleash magic back on this world that certainly had not had it before.

Magic is a ticking time bomb, and it _always_ comes with a price.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 


End file.
